Minimally invasive medical techniques are intended to reduce the amount of tissue that is damaged during medical procedures, thereby reducing patient recovery time, discomfort, and harmful side effects. Such minimally invasive techniques may be performed through natural orifices in a patient anatomy or through one or more surgical incisions. Through these natural orifices or incisions physician may insert minimally invasive medical instruments (including surgical, diagnostic, therapeutic, or biopsy instruments) to reach a target tissue location. One such minimally invasive technique is to use a flexible and/or steerable elongate device, such as a flexible catheter, that can be inserted into anatomic passageways and navigated toward a region of interest within the patient anatomy. In some applications, the flexible and/or steerable elongate device is subjected to axial loads during operation (e.g., pulling and/or pushing forces along an axial direction of the elongate device). If the axial loads exceed the axial strength of the elongate device, the elongate device and/or medical instruments may be damaged and the patient may be injured.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide axial support structures for flexible and/or steerable elongate devices, such as steerable catheters, that are suitable for use during minimally invasive medical techniques.